EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The physical layout of an athletic locker room — who sits where — is customarily a vague mix of democracy and tenure.

But this season, four side-by-side lockers in one corner of the Giants’ locker room have emerged as a distinct power corridor, a kind of leadership command center for a team with more than 20 new players.

Along one wall from left to right near a common entrance are the lockers for quarterback Eli Manning, running back Rashad Jennings, middle linebacker Jon Beason and strong safety Antrel Rolle. Manning is the unquestioned heart of the offense, Beason and Rolle are the spiritual and vocal leaders of the defense, and Jennings is the most productive, prominent and influential of the many first-year Giants.

The arrangement of the lockers inside the team’s daily practice complex is not by happenstance, and these players use the proximity of their lockers to commune about not only game plans, but also ways to motivate and shepherd their teammates.

The four lockers are made of lightly stained wood, each about 40 inches wide and filled with jerseys, pads, athletic shoes and toiletries. But in the complicated milieu of a celebrated team like the Giants, their occupants operate more like a council.

“Every week, there’s some message we want to stress, or there’s a certain thought we want to get out to the whole team,” Manning said. “So we get together and talk about doing that. What’s the topic for a certain day or what’s the message of today’s practice?

“It definitely makes it easier with us in one place. Rashad is a leader. Jon and Antrel are defensive leaders.”

Indeed, Manning, Beason and Rolle are among the team’s five captains. Long snapper Zak DeOssie and wide receiver Victor Cruz are the others, and their lockers are not far away.

“We know why we’re here,” Jennings said. “We come in every day and change into our uniforms and, because we’re shoulder to shoulder, it becomes a natural conversation about what we’re trying to accomplish.

“We talk about what the emotion or mood of the team might be, how to get the team in the right frame of mind or how to get the team energized. You can say it’s just talk, but there are a lot of benefits.”

Joe Skiba, the Giants’ equipment director and the person most responsible for the locker positioning, calls the alignment of Manning, Jennings, Beason and Rolle “our high-rent district.”

“We’ve talked about breaking them up,” said Skiba, who has been with the team since the 1990s. “But they wanted to be next to each other. It seems to work.”

When the Giants moved into their new headquarters and stadium in 2010, the lockers were assigned more or less in order of jersey number. But with continual roster turnover, new players would often want to sit near former teammates or near others in their position group. Soon, the numerical pattern was lost.

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From the start, Manning made a claim for his current locker at the practice complex because it was next to a five-foot divider that afforded him additional room for the 30 or more reporters he routinely attracts. (The locker arrangement on game days at MetLife Stadium is different.)

The locker next to his has usually been occupied by a player with a lesser profile because he has to endure the crush of Manning’s news media throng. Last season, it was the backup quarterback Ryan Nassib; in 2012, it was kicker Lawrence Tynes.

When Jennings signed as a free agent in March, he figured to be the starting running back, but Skiba nonetheless suggested that he dress next to Manning.

But his proximity to Manning means Jennings often has to wait in the middle of the locker room until the reporters and television cameras leave and clear the path to his locker. Jennings, seated at his locker when Manning’s news conference began Wednesday, was soon enveloped by members of the news media.

“It comes with the territory; I don’t mind at all,” Jennings said, smiling. “We joke about it because Eli is a funny dude. People don’t know how hilarious Eli is. He’s got a sense of humor that would be a good fit for the TV show ‘The Office.’

“You’ve got to be paying attention to get his punch lines. You’ve got to be thinking. But if you are listening closely, he’s just hysterical.”

One year ago, Beason was acquired in a trade with the Carolina Panthers and brought an animated, garrulous personality to what was then the Manning-Rolle corner of the locker room. Beason wanted to dress next to Rolle, a former college teammate at Miami.

“Jon is a take-charge guy and always has been,” Rolle said. “He has a lot of contagious spirit that other players follow. He and I are close, and we’re very vocal leaders, and we do have a lot of insight into what’s going on and what the game plan is. So we have a lot of communicating to do with the rest of the team, and we talk about that.

“I mean, I would dress wherever they put my name. But this is where we are, so we talk a lot.”

Beason agreed.

“I think we would lead wherever we were put, but it is true that Antrel and I are talkers and players with a lot of energy and a lot of things to say,” he said. “Rashad is like that, too. And Eli, well, everybody listens to Eli.”

A more formal leadership council regularly meets with Coach Tom Coughlin. It includes the captains and defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, tackle Will Beatty and other select players. But the locker room ethos is more informal, and in that setting, some situations are handled with a private conversation during a quiet time before or after practice.

The discourse in the power corner of the Giants’ locker room is also, not surprisingly, often a technical discussion of football strategy, as the four veterans wrestle with the nuances of an ever-evolving playbook.

“Rashad and I are constantly comparing notes on blocking schemes, pass routes or coverages,” Manning said. “Just because you leave the field, it doesn’t mean you stop thinking and talking about all that stuff.”

To that end, Jennings considered the location of his locker elemental.

“We’re side by side on the field, so why shouldn’t we be in the locker room?” Jennings said. “When we’re sitting here looking out, I’m in the locker to his left. I’m protecting his blind side.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP4 of the New York edition with the headline: In the Giants’ Locker Room, Leadership Sits All in a Row. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe